Shareholders fund a company. Management runs the company. Sometimes, Shareholders & Management are the same or they overlap, sometimes they are completely separate. Undoubtedly, shareholders fund companies. If managing a company does not yield enough to run operations, Shareholders plough into the company - Company practice 101. So it is inaccurate that share trading only results in financial benefit to the traders & not the company. Stockvalues create access to better capital for companies too.